Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00266)

Jan 30 2006

Dear Kees:

Please see below:

Best wishes,
	

	Dallas


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	PLEASE ADD TO ARTICLE  (omittted in first printiing  DT )


"The human soul," says Apuleius, "is an immortal God" (Buddhi) which
nevertheless has his beginning. When death rids it (the Soul), from its
earthly corporeal organism, it is called lemure. There are among the latter
not a few which are beneficent, and which become the gods or demons of the
family, i.e., its domestic gods: in which case they are called lares. But
they are vilified and spoken of as larvæ when sentenced by fate to wander
about, they spread around them evil and plagues. (Inane terriculamentum,
ceterum noxium malis); or if their real nature is doubtful they are referred
to as simply manes (Apuleius, see--Du Dieu de Socrate, pp. 143-145. Edit.
Niz.). Listen to Yamblichus, Proclus, Porphyry, Psellus, and to dozens of
other writers on these mystic subjects. 

The Magi of Chaldea believed and taught that the celestial or divine soul
would participate in the bliss of eternal light, while the animal or
sensuous soul would, if good, rapidly dissolve, and if wicked, go on
wandering about in the Earth's sphere. In this case, "it (the soul) assumes
at times the forms of various human phantoms and even those of animals." The
same was said of the Eidolon of the Greeks, and of their Nepesh by the
Rabbins. (See Sciences Occultes, Count de Resie. V. 11.) All the Illuminati
of the middle ages tell us of our astral Soul, the reflection of the dead or
his spectre. At Natal death (birth) the pure spirit remains attached to the
intermediate and luminous body but as soon as its lower form (the physical
body) is dead, the former ascends heavenward, and the latter descends into
the nether worlds, or the Kama loka. 

Homer shows us the body of Patroclus--the true image of the terrestrial body
lying killed by Hector--rising in its spiritual form, and Lucretius shows
old Ennius representing Homer himself, shedding bitter tears, amidst the
shadows and the human simulachres on the shores of Acherusia "where live
neither our bodies nor our souls," but only our images. 

". . . Esse Acherusia templa,
. . . Quo neque permanent animæ, neque corpora nostra,
Sed quædam simulacra. . . ." 

Virgil called it imago "image" and in the Odyssey (I. XI) the author refers
to it as the type, the model, and at the same time the copy of the body;
since Telemachus will not recognize Ulysses and seeks to drive him off by
saying--"No thou art not my father; thou art a demon,--trying to seduce me!"
(Odys. 1. XVI. v. 194.) "Latins do not lack significant proper names to
designate the varieties of their demons; and thus they called them in turn,
lares, lemures, genii and manes." Cicero, in translating Plato's Timæus,
translates the word daimones by lares; and Festus the grammarian, explains
that the inferior or lower gods were the souls of men, making a difference
between the two as Homer did, and between anima bruta and anima divina
(animal and divine souls). Plutarch (in Proble. Rom.) makes the lares
preside and inhabit the (haunted) houses, and calls them cruel, exacting,
inquisitive, etc., etc. Festus thinks that there are good and bad ones among
the lares. For he calls them at one time prœstites as they gave occasionally
and watched over things carefully (direct apports), and at
another--hostileos.12 "However it may be," says in his queer old French,
Leloyer, "they are no better than our devils, who, if they do appear helping
sometimes men, and presenting them with property, it is only to hurt them
the better and the more later on. Lemures are also devils and larvæ for they
appear at night in various human and animal forms, but still more frequently
with features that THEY borrow from dead men." (Livre des Spectres. V. 1V,
p. 15 and 16.) 

After this little honour rendered to his Christian preconceptions, that see
Satan everywhere, Leloyer speaks like an Occultist, and a very erudite one
too. 

"It is quite certain that the genii and none other had mission to watch over
every newly born man, and that they were called genii, as says Censorius,
because they had in their charge our race, and not only they presided over
every mortal being but over whole generations and tribes, being the genii of
the people." 

The idea of guardian angels of men, races, localities, cities, and nations,
was taken by the Roman Catholics from the pre-christian occultists and
pagans. Symmachus (Epistol, 1. X) writes: "As souls are given to those who
are born, so genii are distributed to the nations. Every city had its
protecting genius, to whom the people sacrificed." There is more than one
inscription found that reads: Genio civitates--"to the genius of the city." 

Only the ancient profane, never seemed sure any more than the modern whether
an apparition was the eidolon of a relative or the genius of the locality.
Enneus while celebrating the anniversary of the name of his father Anchises,
seeing a serpent crawling on his tomb knew not whether that was the genius
of his father or the genius of the place (Virgil). "The manes"13 were
numbered and divided between good and bad; those that were sinister, and
that Virgil calls numina larva, were appeased by sacrifices that they should
commit no mischief, such as sending bad dreams to those who despised them,
etc. 

Tibullus shows by his line: 


Ne tibi neglecti mittant insomnia manes. (Eleg., I, II.) 


"Pagans thought that the lower Souls were transformed after death into
diabolical aerial spirits." (Leloyer, p. 22.) 

The term Eteroprosopos when divided into its several compound words will
yield a whole sentence, "an other than I under the features of my person." 

It is to this terrestrial principle, the eidolon, the larva, the bhoot--call
it by whatever name--that reincarnation was refused in Isis.14 

The doctrines of Theosophy are simply the faithful echoes of Antiquity. Man
is a Unity only at his origin and at his end. All the Spirits, all the
Souls, gods and demons emanate from and have for their root-principle the
SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE--says Porphyry (De Sacrifice). Not a philosopher of any
notoriety who did not believe (1) in reincarnation (metempsychosis), (2) in
the plurality of principles in man, or that man had two Souls of separate
and quite different natures; one perishable, the Astral Soul, the other
incorruptible and immortal; and (3) that the former was not the man whom it
represented--"neither his spirit nor his body, but his reflection at best."
This was taught by Brahmins, Buddhists, Hebrews, Greeks, Egyptians and
Chaldeans; by the post-diluvian heirs of the prediluvian Wisdom, by
Pythagoras and Socrates, Clemens Alexandrinus, Synesius, and Origen, the
oldest Greek poets as much as the Gnostics, whom Gibbon shows as the most
refined, learned and enlightened men of all ages (See "Decline and Fall,"
etc.). But the rabble was the same in every age: superstitious
self-opinionated, materializing every most spiritual and noble idealistic
conception and dragging it down to its own low level, and--ever adverse to
philosophy. 

But all this does not interfere with that fact, that our "fifth Race" man,
analyzed esoterically as a septenary creature, was ever exoterically
recognized as mundane, sub-mundane, terrestrial and supra mundane, Ovid
graphically describing him as-- 

Bis duo sunt hominis;
manes, caro, spiritus, umbra 
     Quatuor ista loca bis duo suscipiunt. 
     Terra tegit carnem, tumulum circumvolat umbra, 
     Orcus habet manes, spiritus estra petit.


Ostende, Oct., 1886. 

   PATH,  November, 1886 



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l See charge and answer, in Theosophist, August, 1882. 
t 

2The cycle of existence during the manvantara--period before and after the
beginning and completion of which every such "monad" is absorbed and
reabsorbed in the ONE soul, anima mundi. 


3 Hades has surely never been meant for Hell It was always the abode of the
sorrowing shadows of astral bodies of the dead personalities. Western
readers should remember Kama-loka is not Karma-loka, for Kama means desire,
and Karma does not. 


4 Had this word "immediate" been put at the time of publishing Isis between
the two words "no" and "reincarnation" there would have been less room for
dispute and controversy. 


5 By "sphere above," of course "Devachan" was meant. 
t 

6 The reader must bear in mind that the esoteric teaching maintains that
save in cases of wickedness when man's nature attains the acme of Evil, and
human terrestrial sin reaches Satanic universal character, so to say as some
Sorcerers do there is no punishment hr the majority of mankind after death.
The law of retribution as Karma awaits man at the threshold of his new
incarnation. Mall is at best a wretched tool of evil, unceasingly forming
new causes and circumstances. He is not always (if ever) responsible. Hence
a period of rest and bliss in Devachan, with an utter temporary oblivion of
all the miseries and sorrows of life. Avitchi is a spiritual state of the
greatest misery and is only in store for those who have devoted consciously
their lives to doing injury to others and have thus reached its highest
spirituality of EVIL. 


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* The following "Important Correction," by Mme. Blavatsky, and editorial
note by Mr. Judge, appeared in the Path for January, 1887. 

TO ALL THE READERS OF THE PATH: 

In the November number of Path in my article "Theories about Reincarnation
and Spirits," the entire batch of elaborate arguments is upset and made to
fall flat owing to the mistake of either copyist or printer. On page 235,
the last paragraph is made to begin with these words: "Therefore the
reincarnating principles are left behind in Kama-loka, etc.," whereas it
ought to read "Therefore the NON-reincarnating principles (the false
personality) are left behind in Kama-loka, etc.," a statement fully
corroborated by what follows, since it is stated that those principles fade
out and disappear. 

There seems to be some fatality attending this question. The spiritualists
will not fail to see in it the guiding hand of their dear departed ones from
"Summerland", and I am inclined to share that belief with them in so far
that there must be some mischievous spook between me and the printing of my
articles, Unless immediately corrected and attention drawn to it, this error
is one which is sure to be quoted some day against me and called a
contradiction. 

Yours truly, 

     H. P.
BLAVATSKY

November 20th, 1886. 


NOTE.--The MS. for the article referred to was written out by some one for
Mme. Blavatsky and forwarded to us as it was printed, and it is quite
evident that the error was the copyist's, and not ours nor Madame's; besides
that, the remainder of the paragraph clearly shows a mistake. We did not
feel justified in making such an important change on our own responsibility,
but are now glad to have the author do it herself. Other minor errors
probably also can be found in consequence of the peculiar writing of the
amanuensis, but they are very trivial in their nature.--[ED. Path]

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7 Says Apuleius: "The soul is born in this world upon leaving the soul of
the world (anima mundi) in which her existence precedes the one we all know
(on earth). Thus, the Gods who consider her proceedings in all the phases of
various existences and as a whole, punish her sometimes for sins committed
during an anterior life. She dies when she separates herself from a body in
which she crossed this life as in a frail bark. And this is, if I mistake
not, the secret meaning of the tumulary inscription, so simple for the
initiate: "To the Gods manes who lived." But this kind of death does not
annihilate the soul, it only transforms (one portion of it) it into a
lemure. "Lemures" are the manes. or ghosts, which we know under the name
lares. When they keep away and shows a beneficent protection, we honour in
them the protecting divinities of the family hearth; but if their crimes
sentence them to err, we call them 1arvæ. They become a plague for the
wicked, and the vain terror of the good." ("Du Dieu de Socrate" Apul. class,
pp. 143-145.)
 

8 "The cause of reincarnation is ignorance"--therefore there is
"reincarnation" once the writer explained the causes of it. 


9 A proof of how our theosophical teachings have taken root in every class
of Society and even in English literature may be seen by reading Mr. Norman
Pearson's article "Before Birth" in the Nineteenth Century for August, 1886.
Therein, theosophical ideas and teachings are speculated upon without
acknowledgement or the smallest reference to theosophy, and among others, we
see with regard to the author's theories on the Ego the following: "How much
of the individual personality is supposed to go to heaven or hell? Does the
whole of the mental equipment, good and bad, noble qualities and unholy
passions, follow the soul to its hereafter? Surely not. But if not, and
something has to be stripped off, how and when are we to draw the line? If,
on the other hand, the Soul is something distinct from all our mental
equipment, except the sense of self, are we not confronted by the
incomprehensible notion of a personality without any attributes?" 

To this query the author answers as any true theosophist would: "The
difficulties of the question ready spring from a misconception of the true
nature of these attributes. The components of our mental
equipment--appetites, aversions, feelings, tastes and qualities
generally--are not absolute but relative existences. Hunger and thirst for
instance are states of consciousness which arise in response to the stimuli
of physical necessities. They are not inherent elements of the soul and will
disappear or become modified, etc." (pp. 356 and 357). In other words, the
theosophical doctrine is adopted, Atma and Buddhi having culled off the
Manas the aroma of the personality or human soul--go into Devachan; while
the lower principles, the astral simulacrum or false personality void of its
Divine monad or spirit, will remain in the Kamaloka--the "Summerland."
 

10 Nirmanakaya is the name given to the astral forms (in their completeness)
of adepts, who have progressed too high on the path of knowledge and
absolute truth, to go into the state of Devachan: and have, on the other
hand, deliberately refused the bliss of nirvana, in order to help Humanity
by invisibly guiding and helping on the same path of progress elect men. But
these astrals are not empty shells, but complete monads made up of the 3rd,
4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th principles. There is another order of nirmanakaya,
however, of which much will be said in the Secret Doctrine.--H.P.B. 


11 Placing these parallel with the division in esoteric teaching we see that
(1) Osiris is Atma; (2) Sa is Buddhi; (3) Akh is Manas; (4) Khou is
Kama-rupa, the seat of terrestrial desires; (5) Khaba is Lingha Sarira; (6)
Kha is Pranatma (vital principle); (7) Sah is mummy or body.


12 Because they drove the enemies away. 


13 From manus--"good," an antiphrasis, as Festus explains. 
 

14 Page 12, Vol. 1, of Isis Unveiled, belief in reincarnation is asserted
from the very beginning, as forming part and parcel of universal beliefs.
"Metempsychosis" (or transmigration of souls) and reincarnation being after
all the same thing.


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SOUIRCE  IS

		Ostende, Oct., 1886. 

   		PATH,  New York,   November, 1886 


Dallas

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-----Original Message-----
From: Kees [mailto:keesvoorhoeve@planet.nl] 
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 10:15 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: THEORIES ABOUT REINCARNATION AND SPIRITS H P B


Hello Dallas,

This is indeed a very interesting article. It is very helpful to me for my
lectures.(See my post on Sun, 29 Jan 2006 04:44:27 -0800)
Can you tell me where you found it? In the Collected Writings?
Most sincerely,
Kees 

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